A postal code is a set of numbers (and sometimes letters!) that identifies an address. They're used for a variety of reasons: shipping, address validation, verifying identity, and more. They're managed by a specific entity within each country and are overseen by the Universal Postal Union, which keeps track of global mail. Postal codes are grouped together systematically to make them easier to read and use. They're typically tied to geographical/administrative boundaries like cities or states, though this varies nation to nation. In the US, for example, the first digit of a ZIP code (which can be from 0 to 9) indicates which region in the country it's headed to. The next digits specify the city, followed by an alphabetical list of neighborhoods. As the world got more populated and built up, postal codes were developed to facilitate efficient mail delivery. These began with postal district numbers in large cities (London was split into ten districts in 1857, and pre-WWI Europe saw similar implementations), and by the 1980s were being used worldwide. In 1983, the US introduced a more granular nine-digit format called ZIP+4 (four additional digits, preceded by a hyphen) to speed up automated sorting and provide even more precision. Canada uses a slightly different system, with each component of the code telling a story. The first three digits identify a forward sortation area, and the last two digits identify an even smaller segment of the street (one side or one floor in a building). Each of these is referred to as an LDU (Local Delivery Unit). For businesses, each code can cover up to 100 properties in close proximity.
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